General physiology of muscles and nerves . fastened to the two coatingsof a charged Kleistian or Leyden jar, the charge acts atthe moment at which the connection is formed, andan electric shock traverses the muscle. At the sameinstant the muscle is seen to contract, and the discpasses abruptly upward. In order to repeat the experi-ment it would be necessary to re-charge the Kleistianjar. But similar electric shocks may be more con- IREITABILITY OF MUSCLES 31 venientlj produced by means of so-called us take two coils of silk-covered copper wire andattach the two ends of one of the
General physiology of muscles and nerves . fastened to the two coatingsof a charged Kleistian or Leyden jar, the charge acts atthe moment at which the connection is formed, andan electric shock traverses the muscle. At the sameinstant the muscle is seen to contract, and the discpasses abruptly upward. In order to repeat the experi-ment it would be necessary to re-charge the Kleistianjar. But similar electric shocks may be more con- IREITABILITY OF MUSCLES 31 venientlj produced by means of so-called us take two coils of silk-covered copper wire andattach the two ends of one of these to a muscle. Anelectric current from a battery must now be passedthrough the other coil A. The two coils being com-pletely isolated from each other, the current passingthrough A can in no way enter into B or into the muscleattached to B. If, however, the electric current in A issuddenly interrupted, an electric shock immediatelyarises in B, a so-called inductive shock; and this passesthrough and irritates the muscle; that is to say, a. Fig. 10. IxDUCTiox coil. The coil A is connected with the battery by means of tlie wires x and y ; the othercoil, B, is connected with the muscle by means of wires fixed at q and p, sudden contraction of the muscle is observable at theinstant of the opening of the cmrent in coil A ; andthis suddenly lifts the disc attached to the same thing occurs when the current in the coil Ais again closed; so that this electric irritant affords aneasy and simple means of causing this sudden con-traction of the muscle at pleasure. This contractionmay be called a pulsation; and it will be perceivedfrom the description of the above experiments that asimple electric shock, such as is afforded by the dis-charge of a Kleistian jar, or any similar inductiveshock, is the most convenient means of producing sucha pulsation as often as it is required. 32 PHYSIOLOGY OF MUSCLES AND NERVES. An electric current from the battery itself is alsocapable of acting
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